Blueberries in a Golden Garden

Hello Friends,

It is my turn to host Altenew's blog today. On the next week and so, we are having focus posts at the Altenew blog. Each design team member features a newly released stamp set and shows different ways to use. So much inspiration and a lot of fun techniques. Today is my turn so here are my cards:

Stamps used: Golden Garden and Baby Zoo

It is a blueberry season here in Finland it seems I see them everywhere. I created this card with the Golden Garden set. Since there is only one "blueberry" image, I used mirror stamping technique to get the mirror image and more natural look to my card. I try to explain it in my tutorial. You can watch it here or in HD in YouTube.



Supplies:
Stamps: Golden Garden and Baby Zoo by Altenew
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Altenew Crisp Dye Ink: Jet Black
Paper: Neenah Solar White 80lb, SSS Olive Card Stock, Balck and Light Blue Texured Card Stock by Papermani
Copics used: BV20 - BV23 - BV25 - BV29 (blue), YG91 - YG95 (green)

For my second card, I stayed in my comfort zone. I stamped and coloured, did a bit of masking and then to retain some contrast and to add little interest I doodled around my flowers and leaves with a black marker. Here's the card:

Stamps used: Golden Garden, Halftone Hello and co-ordinationg die
and Sentiments and quotes.

Supplies:
Stamps and dies: Golden Garden, Halftone Hello and co-ordinationg die and Sentiments and quotes by Altenew
Inks: Altenew Crisp Dye Inks: Frosty Pink, Frayed Leaf and Grapevine, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Neenah Solar White 80lb, Red Textured Card Stock from Papermania, Black card stock
Copics: R81 - RV34 (pink), YG91 - YG95 (green)
Black Copic Multiliner 0.1


For my third card I went to a different direction. My first thought was to make a white-on-white wedding card but the idea grew while creating. A few weeks back, there was this awesome sketch by Michelle Williams at the CTS. At that time I didn't have time to play along but I wanted to use the sketch sometime. This card is created inspired by Michelle's awesome sketch:

Stamps used: Golden Garden, Baby Zoo and Ori Kami.

Supplies:
Stamps: Golden Garden, Baby Zoo and Ori Kami
Inks: Altenew Crisp Inks: Forsty Pink and Coral Berry, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: WHSmith Linen Paper, Silver Glitter Paper by Primeco
SSS White Iris Sequins
Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger

Thank you for stopping by today! See you soon!

Marika

Altenew July 2015 Blog Hop

EDIT: This giveaway is closed and you can find the winner HERE! 

Hello Everyone!

Today I'm participating Altenew July 2015 Blog Hop to celebrate a new release of nine new stamp sets. Within this release Altenew brings very different kinds of designs from beautiful florals to silhouette animals. There' surely something for everyone. Please, join me in the celebration. You probably just came from Agnieszka Malyszek if not please start from the beginning at Altenew blog and see what other members of Altenew's design team have come up with. 

Stamps used: Fresh Freesia.

Stamps used: Fresh Freesia.

I just LOVED colouring this. I'm really fond of these outline images that leave you room to be creative and add your own details to make the image yours. This very realistic stamp of a freesia flower just gives you the joy to see the image come alive while colouring it. I googled the flower and added colour and details with my Inktense Pencils. Since I thought this to be a sympathy card, I chose a light grey card stock to be my front panel to get a more toned down look. Before colouring I stamped the flower with light grey ink. I think sympathy cards needs to stay simple so I just added a sentiment at the bottom with black pigment ink and mounted the panel to a darker grey card base. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Fresh Freesia by Altenew.

Card Stock: Simon Says Stamp Smoke and Slate

Inks: SSS Smoke Dye ink

Inktense Pencils used: Carmine Pink (0520), Sun Yellow (0200), Spring Green (1550), Light Olive (1540), Saddle Brown (1740)

Derwent Artists Pencils: Chinese White (7200).

Stamps used: Layered Lily. and Vintage Roses

Stamps used: Layered Lily.

For my second card, I used the 5-step-lily stamp to stamp the flower. I used Altenew inks for my base colour. As I did with the vintage roses, I started at the sedond layer, then the lightest and then I stamped to the darkest. I used black pigment ink to stamp the stamens in the middle because I added details with Inktense Pencils and I didn't want it to smear while blending. With Inktense pencils I sharpened some details and added more shading in the parts that I thought needed more contrast to get more dimension. I drew the little stems in the middle and added a light ombre grey wash for the background. I finished the card with little black dots to give the card some interest.

Supplies:

Stamps: Layered Lily and Vintage Roses by Altenew

Inks: Altenew Crisp Dye Inks: Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red and Grapevine.

Paper: Daler and Rowney Cold Pressed 300gms Textured Watercolour Paper, SSS Smoke Card Stock

Derwent Inktense Pencils used: Carmine Pink (0520), Crimson (0530), Shiraz (0600), Madder Brown (1920), Spring Green (1550), Light Olive (1540), Indian Ink (2020).

Black Irresistible by ImageCrafts

Stamps used: Baby Zoo and Sketchy Cities Abroad

As mentioned earlier, there is something for everyone. I created a scene inspired by Africa to make this Anniversary card. First, I stamped the giraffe's silhouettes with black pigment ink and then fussy cut them with my scissors. To get the mirror image, I just flipped the cut piece over and added a black marker onto it. For the background, I firstly masked off the ground and the sun with post-it tape. Next, I inked the background with Altenew Crisp Dye Inks and found that they worked perfectly creating an array of sunsut colours. I used Buttercream, Warm Sunshine, Ruby Red and Grapevine inks. After the background was dry, I took a black marker and sketched the mountains and added some interest to the ground. At the end, I stamped the sentiment with black pigment ink. 

Supplies: 
Stamps: Baby Zoo and Sketchy Cities Abroad by Altenew
Inks: Altenew Crisp Dye Inks: Buttercream, Warm Sunshine, Ruby Red and Grapevine, Versafine Onyx Black, SSS Smoke Dye Ink and Pure Color Dye Ink Fairy Dust by Wplus9.
Black Marker
Copic Markers: W3 - W5 - W7

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate this release, Altenew will draw three winners who will each receive a $50 gift certificate to their online store. Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Friday, July 31 11:59pm EST for a chance to win. The winners will be announced on Saturday, August 1st.

And there is more! I will randomly choose a winner from comments left on this post and the prize will be $30 gift certificate to Altenew online store. Please leave a comment on this post by Friday, July 31 11:59pm EST for a chance to win. I will announce the winner here at my blog on Saturday, August 1. 

GET HOPPING!

Your next stop will be very talented Yana Smakula. If you encounter a broken link, please go back to Altenew Blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by! See you soon!

Marika

Guesting at the Muse Challenge - Christmas Visions

Good Morning!

A while back Kimberly from Wienerhoneymooners contacted me and asked if I was interested Guesting at their new Muse Challenge - Christmas Visions. Yes, of course! So today the day has come and here is my inspiration for this week. 

I'm very fond of Muse Challenges because you are able to be inspired by other crafter's. There so many of you, who has this amazing talent that I am always so inspired by. So since this week I will be the source of inspiration, I went and looked inspiration somewhere in the crafting world. A few weeks ago, Karren from KarrenJ Stamping Stuff made this wonderful Christmas card with funky hat's in it. I just loved that card and the stacked hats. I went and looked through my Purple Onion Stamps and found these Christmas presents and this lovely dog inside of a gift box called Elm. So here is my card: 

Here some close-ups:

 

Supplies:
Stamps: Elm, Little Packages, Puddles and Hand Written Holiday.
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80lb
Copic markers: V22 - V25 - V28 (purple), RV91 - RV93 - RV95 (greyish pink), RV34 (pink), R39 (red), 0 - W0 - W1 - W3 - W5 - W7 (greys).

Hopefully you'll find some time to play along with us this week at the Muse! Would love to see your take on this card!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Marika

Time Out challenge #35 - Nature with animals and CAS(E) this Sketch #132

Good Morning!

I had a pleasure to finally play along with card challenges again. Life has been so busy lately that I haven't really had time to play along. 

I saw the Time Out- challenge with nature theme. I've been so longing to make these little scenes with Purple Onion Designs' stamps for so long. Then I went to look for inspiration and I ended up to the CAS(E) this sketch and I started from their sketch. While making this the card kind of took a side track and the sketch isn't that "seeable" but that was my starting point at least. Here is my card:

I will submit this card to these challenges:
CAS(E) this Sketch - the sketch
Time Out Card Challenge - Nature with Optional Twist of Animals

Here are the graphics:

Supplies:
Stamps: Heartfelt and Snow Cabin by Purple Onion Designs
Dies: My Favourite Things Pierced Square 
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80b
Copic Markers: 0 - W0 - W1 - W3 - W5 - W7 (greys), V20 - V22 - V23 - V25 (greyish violet), YG 91 - YG95 - YG97 (greens), BV20 (blue), E23 - E47 (brown), R81 (pink)

Thank for stoping by today! See you soon!

Marika

Christmas scene - Christmas in July with Penny Black - Final Day

Hello my dear friends!

Today is my last day on the Penny Black blog to celebrate Christmas in July. At this point I would love to give my heartfelt thank you for all of you who have been with me along this week long journey and given me such a lovely words and comments. Thank you! Also, thank Penny Black and Jill Foster for asking me to Guest Design for Penny Black. It was a blast! 

For my last day, I was actually inspired by my dear crafting friend, Kelly from You and your big dreams. She is master with copics and she is also very talented in drawing. She has created many amazing cards with background scenes that she has drawn on her own. You can find awesome drawing HERE, and HERE and HERE - just to mention a few. I wanted to experiment if I could follow her footsteps and here is my card for today. Hopefully you like - I had a lot of fun making it. I used a photo of mine as my reference which I have taken in Oxford, UK. Hopefully you find your way to Penny Black blog to see the full card.

Supplies:
Stamps: On the Town and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Poppy Red (0400), Chinise Ink (2030), Payne’s Grey (2110)
Copic Multi-Liner 0.1
Kids Funky Foam White
Watercolour paper
Card Stock: Inspire Me Grey Card Stock, Canson Watercolour Paper 180g/m2

Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon! 

Marika

Tone-on-tone coloured Festive Florals - Christmas in July with Penny Black Day 4

Good Morning Everyone,

Today I'm sharing two of my favourite cards from this Guest Design work for Penny Black. I kind of had this colourless month of June and these tone-on-tone flowers just became my favorite. Here's the sneaks for today's cards. To see the full cards, please visit Penny Black blog.

I also put my camera rolling while making the first card. You can watch it here or in HD in YouTube. Hopefully you find it helpful and try this technique while making your Christmas cards.



Supplies:
Stamps: Festive Florals by Penny Black
Dies: Word of Wishes by Penny Black
Inks: Memento Desert Sand and Brilliance Moonlight White
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Oak (1730)
Derwent Coloursoft Pencils: White (C720)
Card Stock: Neenah Desert Storm 80lb, Neenah Solar White 80lb
White Gelly Roll Pen by Sakura
Perfect Pearl Perfect Pearls by Ranger
Clear Wink of Stella

Thank you for stopping by today. See you tomorrow!

Marika

Silver Sparkler -Christmas in July with Penny Black Day 3

Hello friends,

My week with Penny Black continues and today I featured this stunning poinsettia called Sparkler. This image was calling me to take out my watercolour set. But instead staying in my comfort zone I did something else - no colouring at all in this card. Here's the sneak:

Please, visit Penny Black blog to see the full card. 

Instructions: Cut your card base to measure 21cm x 15cm, score it in the middle and fold it in half. Cut a stripe from silver glitter paper measuring 4mm x 15cm and glue it to the right side of your card leaving a 2mm off from the edge. Stamp the sentiment with black pigment on to the lower right corner, sprinkle silver embossing powder on top and heat set it with your heat tool. Stamp the Sparkler with Versamark onto your vellum and silver glitter paper. Sprinkle white glitter embossing powder on top and heat set them until the embossing powder has melted. Cut the flowers with your scissors. Continue cutting the silver glitter Sparkler in way that you cut out the inner pedals of your poinsettia off. Cut out also the stem and the leaf. Adhere the vellum Sparkler on top of the silver Sparkler with liquid glue and then adhere the Sparkler with liquid glue in the centre onto your card base to the upper left corner of your card. Add a little piece of foam tape under the silver pedals and adhere them to your card. Add liquid glue under the stem and the leaf here and there to adhere it onto your card base. Colour in the little pedals with white gel pen in the middle of the flower and then add three rhinestones with liquid glue. Add three rhinestones and three sequins around your flower. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Sparkler and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black
Inks: Versamark and Versafine Onyx Black
Embossing Powder: White Twinkle Embossing Powder by Wow, Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger
Silver Glitter Paper 130gms by Primeco, White Vellum (manufacturer unknown), White 300gsm card stock by Papermania as my card base
Clear Sequins from Love and Sparkles Mix by Neat and Tangled
Clear Rhinestones by Anita's
White Gelly Roll Pen by Sakura

I hope like today's card! Thank you for stopping by today!

Marika

A Glorious window card - Christmas in July Day 2

Good Morning!

Hopefully you're day has started well. Today I'm featuring a die called Gloriuos at the Penny Black Blog. When I got this die, I fell in love with it at first sight. For this guest design work, I wanted to use it a bit differently - I used it to make a window for my card. And, I'm very pleased how this card came together. I just love the effect what the shadows create for the image inside of the card. Here is a sneak from today's card, I hope to see you at the Penny Black's blog to see the whole card.

I filmed while created, if you wish to see the how-to- video, you can watch it here or in HD in Youtube.

Supplies: 
Stamps: Snowy Hamlet by Penny Black
Dies: Glorious and Word of Wishes by Penny Black
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black and Versamark
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Sepia Ink (2010), Poppy Red (0400), Chinese Ink (2030), Golden Yellow (0230), Cadmiun Yellow (0210) and Oak (1730).
Faber-Castell Polychromo Pencils:
Derwent Metallic Pencils: Pewter (81) and Silver (80)
Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen
Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger

I hope you liked today's card and enjoyed watching my how-to video. Thank you for stopping by and see you tomorrow with a floral card.

Marika

Christmas in July with Penny Black - Day 1

Hello my crafty friends,

Today, I have some amazing news and I'm so thrilled to tell you that I was asked to do a week long Guest Design work for Penny Black. Those of you who follow Penny Black blog know already that they have this very inspiring Christmas in July- party with a different Guest Designer for each week going on this July. The two other awesome designers for this year have been Yonsoon Hur from RejoicingCrafts and Nina-Marie Trapani from Nina Marie Design. Both of them are awesome carmakers and they made such an amazing cards for this Christmas party that I am so flattered that I was asked to play along as well. 

I know Christmas is a long way to go and in my designs I tried to do a little bit of this and that and make cards that can be made for non-Christmas occasions too. For some cards, I also put my camera rolling and edited a video afterwards. So here are the sneaks for my first two cards and my theme for today is Jolly Critters! 

I hope I'll see you at the Penny Black blog to see the full cards. I hope you like them and enjoy watching my video. Here is my how-to video for the first card with that funny holiday bird in it. You can watch it here or in HD at YouTube.

Supplies:
Stamps: Jolly Critters and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black
Inks: Memento Tuxido Black and Versafine Onyx Black
Copic markers: Purple: RV99 - RV95 - RV93 - RV91, Greens: YG97 - YG95 - YG 91, Greys: 0 - W1 - W3 - W5 - W7 and Orange: YR68
Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen
Papermania White Smooth Card Stock
Papermania Textured Green Card Stock

Thank you for stopping by today! See you tomorrow!

Marika

A wedding card with Altenew Peony Scrolls

Hello my friends,

Today I am at the Altenew blog to feature Peony Scrolls and Ori Kami sets with a video tutorial. Here is my card:

Stamps used: Peony Scrolls and Ori Kami.

Here is a close-up:

I also filmed while coloured, if you wish to see me make this card, you can watch it here or in HD in Youtube.



Supplies:
Stamps: Peony Scrolls and Ori Kami by Altenew
Inks: Memento Desert Sand and New Sprout. Versafine Onyx Black.
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80b
Copic Markers: Peonies: R81 - RV34 - R56 - R59, Leaves: YG91 - YG95 -YG97, Background: W0 - W1.
Embellishments: Black irRESISTible by Image Crafts

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a great day. See you soon!

Marika

CASology #153 and Freshly Made Sketches #193

Good Afternoon!

I am so glad that I had time to have fun with a few challenges this week. I found this funny stamp by Art Impressions and I just had to have it. I had tons of fun colouring it with copic markers. I have to say, it is little bit difficult but you can see the progress here in these two cards. For the first card I only had in mind to add a pink border stripe but when I wrote the card I had the front panel smeared at the bottom. Then, I saw the sketch at the Freshly Made Sketches and fix it with it. Now I see that I kinda saw the sketch only in half... maybe too little sleep lately. Any how here are my cards for today:

This is my entry to the Freshly Made Sketches #193.

Close up where sparkle in seen a little better.

Here is my second card which I think is really fun. I added an action wobbler behind the lady. I also attached a short video where you can see it in action.

This is my entry to the CASology #153.

Well, I tried to add the graphics but blogger couldn't find the pictures. I'll try later again.

Supplies:
Stamps: Hop Hop Girlfriends by Art Impressions, Gorjuss On Top Of the World by Docrafts, Birthday Greetings by Altenew
Inks: Memento Tuxido Black and SSS Smoke 
Card Stock: Neenah Solar white 80lb, Pink Canson paper 200gsm, Simon Says Smoke card stock
Copic Markers: Blue shirt: BV29 - BV25 - BV23 - BV 20, Trousers: W7 - W5 - W3 - W1, Skin: E000 - E00 - E55, sack: E23 - E55 - E47, Purple shirt: RV99 - RV95 - RV93 - RV91, hairs: E55 - E47 - E49, Red Shirt: R37 - R35 - R32. 
atyou Spica Glitter Pen Black
Action Wobbler

Thank you for stopping by today. Have a great rest of your weekend!

Marika

Guesting at the CTS #130

Hello Friends,

Today I am thrilled to tell you that I am guesting at the CTS this week. I've said this before but I love there challenge, unfortunately I haven't had time to play along as much I have wanted to in the past few weeks. Their sketches are just awesome, please play along this week! 

When I received the sketch for this week, my first thought was that this is right in my alley like a friend of mine would say. Then, I quite struggled with it but finally came up with this card to what I am quite happy with. Hopefully you like it! I'm having a bit of colourless month and this card will continue it. Maybe when I come back from our "adventure" I'll be more inspired by the beautiful colours of the summer again. But here is my card:

Here is the sketch by very talented Leigh Penner. She has really eye for design and her blog - To the Full - is full of inspiration. Please, visit her - you'll be really enjoying your visit!

And before anyone asks, that reflection of the fence in the picture is purely from the kitchen table with sunlight coming out of the window. Pretty cool, isn't it?!?! I was so amazed by it.

This is a one-layer card, I stamped the butterfly with light grey ink, the sentiment is stamped with black pigment ink. Then I used Derwent Inktense Pencils to colour in the image. I sketched the "fence" with my pencil and then shaded it with the same inktense pencil.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bejeweled and Birthday Greetings by Altenew
Inks: Memento London Fog and Versafine Onyx Black
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Ink Black (2200)
White card stock 300gsm (manufacturer unknown)

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you play along this week at the CTS! Enjoy rest of your day and see you soon!

Marika